Marcella Bennett's Mothman Sighting
"I knew it was nothing from this earth. I knew the creature, whatever it was, didn't live here." - Marcella Bennett It was Wednesday November 16th 1966, the night after The Scarberry and Mallette Sighting. Marcella Bennett, her brother Raymond Wamsley and his wife Cathy, were bringing Marcella's two year old daughter, Tina, to visit relatives who lived near the TNT Area of Point Pleasant, West Virginia. Marcella and her brother had read about the strange being in the newspaper and they even thought it might be fun to go out and look for it one day, but they never expected what was about to happen. The house they were visiting was a neat bungalow back among the igloos of the TNT Area. It belonged to Ralph Thomas who was the superintendent of the Trojan-U.S operations there. Ralph's wife, Virginia Thomas, was Marcella Bennett's sister. When Marcella, Raymond and Cathy arrived, they discovered that Ralph and Virginia had both left to go to church. The only ones home were the three Thomas children, Rickie, Connie and Vickie. After exchanging a few words with the children, Bennett and the Wamsleys headed back to their car. It was about 9PM at this time. That's when they spotted some strange lights in the sky that hovered above the trees. Raymond stopped when he got to the bottom of the steps. He tried to get Marcella's attention. She told him that she didn't want to see any lights. He said "No stop, you've got to look at this. This isn't a plane". She ignored him and began walking to the car, carrying her daughter. Suddenly, a figure stirred in the darkness behind the parked car. She saw the creature out of the corner of her eyes as she was unlocking the car door. She first saw a man's legs that looked like they were covered with gray feathers. She did not see any feet. Like a slow-motion scene in a horror film, she pulled her eyes up. The wings were drawn in towards its body. The head was titled sideways. It looked like a bird but was too big to be a bird. Standing only a few feet away from her was a giant man-bird, its head sunken into the shoulder area. She saw no red eyes, but later said she might have been too frightened to notice. Marcella described the creature as "Over six foot tall with feathers. It just looked like a giant bird but yet, a man and it was standing with his shoulders arched and its neck down". She was terrified but unable to run. "I just stood there and looked at it, but I couldn't figure out what it was that I was seeing" said Marcella. Her brother saw it but would not come towards where it was. Raymond and his wife were both very frightened. He kept yelling for Marcella to run, but she was paralyzed by fear. When Marcella finally managed to turn around, she took maybe four steps towards the house before falling to the ground in a state of shock on top of her daughter. She was unable to get up as if in a trance. "I just couldn't do what my mind was wanting me to do." she explained. Marcella had heard the flapping of wings as she was trying to run. After pulling herself together, she picked up her child and ran to the house. The Wamsleys were waiting on the steps and Raymond heard the creature once again flap its wings as Marcella reached them. The family locked themselves inside the house. Marcella's hands and knees were badly skinned up, scrapped, bruised and bleeding from the fall. She had been burned from falling on top of her lit cigarette. The side of her face was also bleeding from where she had fallen. The children inside were all screaming and crying in panic. Raymond Wamsley frantically phoned the police. By this time Marcella was lying on the sofa and could hear him telling the Sheriff's Department to get to the TNT area because they had seen the creature. He told him that they were locked in the house, but that it was still outside. The Mothman shuffled onto the porch, pushed on the door and peering into the windows. It took the police about 15 to 20 minutes to arrive at the house but the creature was gone by the time they got there. The police did not make a mockery of what the family reported because they saw that Marcella had been injured. They believed what the witnesses were telling them. They had guns drawn and were searching all around the house. Before they realized it, the front yard was soon full of not only police cars but curious people and cars from everywhere. It looked like a drive-in theater. Raymond talked to the police and filled out the paperwork and police reports. Marcella Bennett has described it as the most frightening experience of her life and something she felt uncomfortable talking about. She was traumatized and could not sleep. "I would think I could hear the wings flapping and noise on top of the roof. I kept feeling that this thing had followed us home." she said. Somehow, she felt the creature now had a link to her and would come back. She never drove at night after her experience. "I couldn't sleep and I was hearing things and thought that it was right outside and still after me. I couldn't imagine what this thing was, or where it came from, and what was its purpose. It was close enough to harm me, but it didn't" said Marcella. She even sought medical attention at Holzer Hospital to deal with her anxieties and lack of sleep. "I did not want to tell the doctor what I had seen, but he asked me if I was Marcella Bennett. He asked me if I was one of the people who saw the big bird in Point Pleasant." Marcella said. She would feel the Mothman's presence at times that would send her into a panic, for example she would feel as if he was in the backseat of her car, hit the brakes and turn to look behind her. The sighting was put in the newspaper. Marcella talked to author John Keel who included her in his 1975 book, The Mothman Prophecies. Then in 2002 she was featured in the Search For The Mothman Documentary. In 2005, she was interviewed by local author Jeff Wamsley, no relation, who published it in his book Mothman...behind the red eyes. He also kept archive footage of his interview with her that was later used in The Mothman of Point Pleasant 2017 Documentary. Sources: "Mason County has 'Flying' Mystery" Newspaper from November 18th 1966 The Mothman Prophecies by John Keel (1975) (Page 79) (Chapter 6 - II.) Search for the Mothman Documentary (2002) Mothman...behind the red eyes by Jeff Wamsley (2005) (Page 71) The Mothman of Point Pleasant Documentary (2017) Category:66-67 Point Pleasant WV MothMan FLAP Category:Mystery